Rocket Dreams: From Hobby to Career with Nico Montoya

In this episode, Nico Montoya, Head of Propulsion, Manufacturing, & Test Operations at Orbital Operations, shares his journey from building rockets as a child to leading complex aerospace programmes. Drawing on experience at companies including SpaceX, Blue Origin, Relativity Space, Stoke Space, and Orbital Operations, Nico explores how hands-on learning, embracing failure, mentorship, and extreme ownership create stronger engineers and high-performing teams. Key Topics: Turning a childhood passion for rockets into an aerospace career Why building and testing teaches what the classroom cannot Learning from failure and designing for reliability The value of student teams, internships, and building a professional network Finding mentors and seeking career-shaping advice Extreme ownership, collaboration, and accountability in complex engineering teams Practical advice for aspiring engineers: build, experiment, and get involved Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.